Embraer Enhanced Phenom 300E

Innovation: Embraer’s enhanced 300E updates the world’s best-selling light jet with a completely restyled interior, updated avionics, and more engine performance.  

Cabin: The enhanced 300E’s new “Bossa Nova” interior, first introduced on Embraer’s Praetor 600 super-midsize jet, features larger cabin windows and piano black finish with gold trim on the tables, monuments, and side ledges. Additional features include carbon-fiber accents, unique diamond stitching, and an upper tech panel that reflects light and color like a mirror and serves as a touchscreen, providing flight information and other options to passengers. The Bossa Nova package adds $150,000 for trim and finishing only.

Cabin sound-suppression improvements include new thermal-acoustic insulation, which lowers the high-pitch tone of the engines during climb by minimizing the blade-passing frequency perceived in the cabin, according to Embraer. Engineers also redesigned three check valves, with new valve geometry and materials that eliminate metallic flapper noise during descent and final approach. A new muffler in the vapor-cycle air-conditioning system eliminates noise from the condenser fan, which previously could be heard during approach; it also reduces noise from the system when it's running on the ground. The updated cabin also accommodates Gogo’s Avance L5 air-to-ground system, which offers much faster service in the U.S. and many areas in Canada, allowing streaming of movies, emails with attachments, and Gogo’s Text & Talk service.

Performance and Efficiency: More powerful Pratt & Whitney PW535E1 engines (3,478 pounds of thrust, an increase of 118 pounds per engine) enable faster time to climb and a new top speed of Mach .80 or 464 knots true airspeed, up from Mach .78 and 446 knots. Time to climb to the maximum altitude of FL450, which can be done directly, is 24 minutes, one minute less than the previous 300E. Fuel volume is increased by 50 pounds, bringing maximum range to more than 2,100 nm at long-range cruise power. Payload with maximum fuel is 26 pounds more, increasing to 1,387 pounds. Direct hourly operating costs are slightly less than $1,800.

Safety: Moving the bulkheads farther aft behind the pilot seats increases cockpit seat track length by 40 percent and now taller pilots are more comfortable. The Garmin G3000-based Prodigy Touch flight deck is more capable with new avionics display hardware with faster processors, higher resolution, and improved map panning. Emergency descent mode (EDM) autonomously flies the airplane to a lower altitude in case of decompression at high altitudes. New software enables the addition of standard graphical weight and balance, takeoff and landing data, performance calculations, stabilized approach, and autopilot-coupled go-arounds. Optional features include predictive windshear, FAA datacomm, Garmin FliteCharts, VFR/IFR en route charts, and a Runway Overrun and Awareness Alerting System (ROAAS) that uses neural network algorithms to calculate runway distance in real-time and advises the pilot to perform a go-around or to use maximum braking action once on the runway.

Design Significance: The enhanced 300E packs a light jet with large jet features for less than $10 million.

Embraer Praetor 500 

Innovation: With the Praetor 500, Embraer has retooled its midsize jet with new interiors, more fuel capacity, new winglets, increased engine thrust, and updated avionics.

Cabin: The Praetor 500 offers a 5,800-foot cabin altitude and a six-foot-high flat-floor cabin that seats seven to nine. The New “Bossa Nova” interiors incorporate redesigned seat stitching, carbon-fiber accents, and a minimum of visible switchology. The latter is largely thanks to the upper tech panel, which displays flight information and provides cabin-management-system features for Honeywell’s Ovation Select. Gogo Vision is optional with installation of the Gogo Avance L5 air-to-ground connectivity system. Connectivity is also available via a new global airborne connectivity option with the Viasat Ka-band satcom and IPTV.

Performance and Efficiency: New, larger winglets and additional fuel capacity help to boost the range in the 500 by 350 nm to 3,340 nm (four passengers). With the extra fuel’s weight comes the need for more pavement, however: fully loaded, the 500 requires 4,222 feet of runway for takeoff. Payload with full fuel is 1,600 pounds and the baggage capacity is a generous 150 cu ft. High-speed cruise is 466 knots and the maximum altitude is 45,000 feet. Power comes from a pair of Honeywell HTF7500E turbofans rated at 6,540 pounds of thrust.

Safety: The Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics have new capabilities, including MultiScan radar that adds vertical weather and predictive wind shear, cockpit display of ADS-B In traffic, and a synthetic vision guidance system (SVGS) that enables approaches in lower visibility. Embraer’s enhanced vision system, the Collins HGS-3500 compact head-up display, and a Honeywell inertial reference system are options that give the 500 navigation and safety enhancements typically found only in large-cabin jets. Embraer's path-stable fly-by-wire (FBW) controls are similar to those found on Falcon and Airbus jets. 

Design Significance: The Praetor 500 provides the cabin feel, range, and safety features typically only found on super-medium cabin jets at a midsize price.

Cessna Citation Longitude

Innovation: The Citation Longitude delivers the quietest cabin in its class at a competitive price.

Cabin: The Citation Longitude’s flat-floor cabin cross-section—six feet tall and more than six feet wide—makes it the narrowest in class. Cabin length is 25 feet. A variety of configurations are available, with passenger seating for up to 12, although eight to nine is typical; a full forward galley; and an aft lav with vacuum flushing toilet. The 100-cu-ft heated baggage compartment is accessible in flight. The trailing-link landing gear sits the airframe fairly low, so there is no need for a ladder to access the aft baggage compartment from the outside. Natural light throughout the cabin comes from 14 large windows. LED lighting is controlled via a wireless cabin-management system that also delivers information/entertainment choices, such as SiriusXM and moving maps. Standard Iridium satcom allows high-speed Wi-Fi. Passengers can operate the system via onboard touchscreens, controllers, or smart devices. Each single seat has two USB charging ports.

Performance and Efficiency: The Longitude’s Honeywell’s HTF7700L engines each deliver 7,665 pounds of thrust and propel the aircraft to a high-speed cruise velocity of 483 knots. The Honeywell 36-150 APU can be run up to 35,000 feet. Maximum altitude is 45,000 feet. The maximum range with four passengers is 3,500 nm. Full fuel payload is 1,600 pounds. A fuel computer mounted at the fuel access panel allows control of single-point refueling without having to monitor from the flight deck.

Takeoff distance at the Longitude’s 39,500-pound maximum takeoff weight is estimated at 4,810 feet. The regular maintenance interval is 800 hours—the longest in class—and Textron Aviation estimates direct hourly operating costs are $2,191.

Safety:  The Longitude is equipped with the Garmin G5000 flight deck and optional GHD 2100 head-up display with enhanced vision system. The simplified flight deck includes four touchscreen controllers. The Garmin GSR 56 Iridium satcom provides datalink for FANS and ATN-B1 services, allowing pilots to use ground and airborne air traffic control digital clearance delivery and messaging in the U.S. and Europe. The GSR 56 can download weather via Iridium, and SiriusXM weather is available in the U.S. Flight controls feature mechanical ailerons and elevator with fly-by-wire rudder and spoilers. Brakes are brake-by-wire dual hydraulic carbon brakes.

Design Significance: The Citation Longitude combines efficiency with an intelligent mix of technologies to deliver an attractive value in the super-midsize category.

Bombardier Global 5500/6500

Innovation: The new Globals mate time-tested fuselages to more efficient wings and engines and modern avionics and a redesigned cabin to deliver superior performance and comfort.  

Cabin: The new airplanes feature Collins Aerospace’s Venue cabin-management and entertainment system, upgraded with the ability to distribute ultra-high-definition 4K content throughout the cabin, a first for business jets. Ka-band satellite connectivity enables worldwide seamless Wi-Fi coverage. The cabins can be configured to typically seat 12 to 17 and are available with many custom options, including steam ovens in the galley, newly styled cabinets and countertops, and a stand-up shower in the aft lav.

The cabins in both aircraft feature the “Nuage” (French for cloud) seat that Bombardier developed for the larger Global 7500. It offers a variety of comfort features, including a tilting seat pan and headrest, the option of a deeper seat pan for larger passengers, a “floating base” that keeps the center of gravity over the swivel mechanism, sculpted foam, tight stitch lines, and hard-shell backs; there’s also built-in storage for personal items such as books, magazines, and tablet computers. The conference/dining areas are fitted with a related new seat design called the “Nuage Chaise,” which allows for the appropriate posture for dining/business meetings but can convert into a lounge chair for reclining. The environmental system features 100 percent fresh air, and “turbo” heating and cooling to quickly bring the cabin to a comfortable temperature. The pressurized baggage hold is accessible in flight.

Performance and Efficiency: The new Globals are Powered by the new Rolls-Royce Pearl 15 engine (15,125 pounds of thrust), which discharges 48 percent less smoke and 20 percent less nitrous oxide, is two decibels quieter, burns 7 percent less fuel, and has 9 percent more thrust than the BR710 engines on the old Globals. The engines are equipped with an advanced engine health and usage-monitoring system that monitors thousands of engine parameters and sends information to the ground in real-time. The latest Globals feature a “re-profiled” wing and other aerodynamic cleanups that Bombardier says will combine with the new engines to boost fuel efficiency by up to 13 percent compared with the legacy Globals. In addition, maximum cruise speed will increase from Mach 0.89 to Mach 0.9 and the airplanes will have longer legs than their predecessors: maximum range on the Global 5500 is 5,900 nm (500 more than on the Global 5000) and 6,600 nm on the Global 6500 (600 more than on the Global 6000).

Safety: In the cockpit, the new Globals feature the Collins combined vision system, which merges infrared enhanced vision and synthetic vision system imagery into a single conformal view—you can take off and land in just about any visibility. Other safety capabilities of the avionics system include advanced weather radar that can predict wind shear, airport moving maps, real-time traffic, and an improved terrain database.

By utilizing an existing fuselage cross-section and combining it with advanced technologies, Bombardier is able to offer the marketplace two new large-cabin, long-range jets at a lower price than their legacy predecessors.